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Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers march up Broadway toward the Kaiser facilities after a rally at the Kaiser corporate office in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2015. The National Union of Healthcare Workers have been negotiating their contract for about four years, and this week took part in a weeklong strike that began Monday goes through Sunday. The workers feel that they are too understaffed to give patients the care they need in a timely way. Kaiser issued a statement and said they are committed to finding a solution that benefits their employees. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health workers plan to go on a five-day strike beginning Monday, Dec. 10, staging pickets around California and drawing attention to what they call a critical staff shortage and unequal benefits.

Roughly 4,000 psychologists, therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and other medical professionals represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers will demonstrate through Friday, Dec. 14, according to the union.

As a result, mental health care appointments during the week may be canceled, but the union’s president says the strike is in the long-term best interest of patients, who currently have to wait a month or more for follow-up mental health appointments due to low staffing levels.

“They’ve canceled appointments for these five days, but there’s a critical situation every day of the year,” Sal Rosselli, the union’s president, said Sunday.

Rosselli said Kaiser needs to hire hundreds more clinicians to address what he called an “access crisis” for patients.

“People that need therapy … need to establish a relationship with a clinician to help get them through their disorders,” he said. “That’s fundamentally important, to establish a relationship and see people on a regular basis.”

Rosselli also said that mental health workers want the same benefits and pensions as roughly 100,000 other Kaiser employees — including medical staff and facilities workers — which would help retain more of them.

A Kaiser spokesperson characterized the strike as “unfortunate” and “unnecessary” in an interview Sunday.

“We believe that this strike is a bargaining tactic, it’s not about access, it’s not about better care,” Michelle Gaskill-Hames, Kaiser’s chief nurse executive said.

“It is really about them pushing for higher wages,” she said, claiming Kaiser’s mental health workers’ total compensations are among the highest in the state.

Gaskill-Hames said Kaiser has invested $175 million in updating mental health facilities and has increased its mental health workforce by 30 percent over the past several years.

“We know we have a shortage of mental health workers across this country, and over the last five years, we have been leaning in very heavily to build a world-class mental health services program,” she said, noting the California Office of the Patient Advocate awarded Kaiser Permanente Northern California its highest rating of five stars for behavioral health this year.

Kaiser said its medical centers and medical offices are scheduled to remain open during the strike, including hospitals, emergency and urgent care departments, as well as primary and specialty care departments, pharmacies, and laboratories.

“Some non-urgent mental health and other appointments may need to be rescheduled. Any patients who are affected will receive a personal phone call from a Kaiser Permanente staff member,” a statement from Kaiser said.

“Anyone in need of urgent mental health or other health care will receive the services they need.”

The union and Kaiser have been negotiating since June, and more bargaining sessions were set for this week, Kaiser said.

Mental health workers at Kaiser have gone on strike four other times between 2012 and 2015 over similar issues, Rosselli said.

In Oct. 2015, the threat of an open-ended strike was averted when the union and Kaiser agreed to a contract, which included promises to hire hundreds clinicians to improve mental health care patient access.

And while Kaiser has hired hundreds more mental health professionals since then, Rosselli said patient care and access has stayed the same or worsened as the health care provider has expanded its client base significantly and some caregivers have left.

Rosselli said Kaiser has the resources to hire more mental health care workers and increase their benefits.

Gaskill-Hames, said the union wants Kaiser’s “mental health professionals to spend less time with our patients, and not more,” which would “impact access negatively.”

However, Rosselli called that an “outrageous manipulation,” and said clinicians want more time to do follow-up work after an appointment, such as notifying a patient’s other caregivers, family, school or employer about their health needs.

Demonstrations are also planned throughout the week. A full list of strike dates and locations can be found on the union’s website.

“We’re very disappointed that they’re bringing our patients into the middle of this,” Gaskill-Hames said of the strike. “We feel like these conversations should be happening at the bargaining table.”